Gratitude and Goals

Hi guys,

So it's that time of year, when I take stock of the goals I made twelve months ago, and feel grateful for the ones I managed to complete.

 

I usually set about five creative goals for myself every January, and this year, I'm happy to report that I made four out of five happen.  One of them was to get my trailer back in use... which she finally is (and all decked out for the holidays.)  She's been providing us with nice doses of coziness and delight this fall...

Another goal was to get a contract for The Impossible Caravan... and although this goal was somewhat out of my control (after all, I could just do the best I could and then leave it to my agent and the mysterious workings of the universe), it has been realized!  And I'll tell you, the book has a new name now, which my editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and I just decided on last week.  I don't think I can divulge the name yet, since it's not completely official... but stay tuned!

  

Another goal was to sew at least three things with the sewing machine we bought last Christmas.  I sewed a bunch of pillows and bunting for my trailer, along with some easy napkins and Valentine's Day cards for Lil Dude's 25 classmates (which was actually the easiest project of all).

Another goal was to finish a solid draft of a YA speculative fiction manuscript that I'm really excited about.  I finished it up this summer and got some great feedback from writer friends.  I'm planning on delving into a revision soon.

Another goal was to translate Star in the Forest into Spanish... which my dear friend, Gloria Garcia Diaz, and I just finished!  We're just going over the copy-edits now.  This was a labor of love, and I'm so thankful to Gloria for doing such a gorgeous job with it.  We don't have a Spanish language publisher for it yet... but that's a goal for early next year!

And my last goal was to revise what my friends and I lovingly refer to as The %&$!#$ Chocolate Book.  I've been working on it for years now-- it's YA and very intricate and sprawling and just a doozy of a manuscript to deal with...  but I do believe that some incarnation of this book will see the light of day at some point in the future.

As for my goals for this year, I just talked about them with my writing group... and I'll let you know next December which ones I got done!

If you embark on creative adventures of any sort, I encourage you to choose a few straightforward goals for the year, preferably ones that are within your power to achieve.  I print mine out in large font and tape them to my computer monitor so they're staring me in the face every day.  I can't ignore them! And at any given time, I'm forced to assess whether my current activity is bringing me closer to my goals or not...

Thank you, dear reader, for swinging by and for reading my books and making my life that much happier!

May your holidays be wonder-filled and magical...

xo,
Laura